c 

W279De 


relating  to  the  endowment  of  "Washington  Uni- 
versity," St.  Louis,  Mo.;  addressed  to  friends 
in  New  England,  and  especially  in  Boston,  who 
have  heretofore  placed  it  in  my  power  to  under- 
take and  prosecute  works  of  religion,  patriotism, 
and  philanthropy,  in  the  West, 

By   WILLIAM  G.  ELIOT. 


Boston,  Mass., 

May  11,  18G4. 


J 


c 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


This  statement,  with  slight  changes,  was  prepared, 
as  an  address,  to  be  delivered  in  several  of  the  Boston 
churches.  It  is  now  printed  for  private  circulation, 
as  the  most  convenient  method  of  bringing  the  sub- 
ject before  those  who  have  the  ability  and  disposition 
to  promote  the  cause  of  sound  learning  and  liberal 
culture.     They  are  most  respectfully  requested    not 


to  lay  it  aside,  without  careful  consideration. 


/^AST    THY    BREAD    UPON    THE  WATERS;    FOR    THOU    SHALT    FIND    IT 
AFTER    MANY   DAYS.       GIVE    A   PORTION    TO    SEVEN,    AND    ALSO    TO 
EIGHT;    FOR     THOU     KNOWEST     NOT     WHAT     EVIL     SHALL     BE     ON     THE 
EARTH. 

T^OR    THE    MEMBERS    SHOULD    HAVE    THE    SAME    CARE    ONE    FOR    AN- 
OTHER.      AND   WHETHER   ONE   MEMBER   SUFFER,    ALL   THE   MEMBERS 
SUFFER  WITH   IT;    OR    ONE    MEMBER    BE    HONORED,    ALL    THE    MEMBERS 
REJOICE  WITH    IT. 

TN   THE  TFME  OF   WAR  IT    IS    THE    CHRISTIAN'S    DUTY   TO    PREPARE    FOR 
THE  RETURN  OF   PEACE. 


IN  presenting  a  new  interest  and  a  new  claim  for  your 
consideration  in  times  like  these,  I  feel  the  need  of 
your  kindest  and  most  friendly  indulgence. 

The  office  of  soliciting  (some  persons  would  call  it  by  a 
harsher  name)  is  never  one  to  be  coveted.  It  is  always 
painful,  not  unfrequently  repulsive.  It  has  no  charms  or 
attractions  whatever ;  and  nothing  but  a  sense  of  duty  in  a 
good  cause,  could,  under  present  circumstances,  have  im- 
pelled me  to  undertake  it.  A  thousand  times  easier  is  it 
for  every  generous  mind  to  give  than  to  ask  another  to 
give.  If  any  man  is  to  be  envied,  it  is  he  who  enjoys  at 
once  the  control  of  riches,  and  the  will  to  consecrate  them, 
from  day  to  day,  to  works  of  beneficence  and  charity ;  and 
the  knowledge  that  I  address  many  such  is  my  best  encour- 
agement to-day. 

The  same  knowledge,  of  which  I  have  had  so  large  expe- 
rimental proof,  relieves  me  from  the  more  disagreeable  part 
in  the  work  of  solicitation,  —  that  of  argument  and  persua- 
sion. The  arts  of  the  rhetorician  have  no  place  and  no 
use  here.  Glowing  promises  and  eloquent  periods  would 
only  do  prejudice  to  my  cause.  My  part  is  simply  to  pre- 
sent a  plain  statement  of  facts;  proving,  if  I  can,  that  an 
opportunity  of  great  and  increasing  usefulness  is  offered, 
under  circumstances  which  justify  the  urgency  of  my  pre- 
sent  appeal.      I   know   that   it   must  seem   untimely  and 


unreasonable.  There  are  so  many  claims  before  us  which 
belong  to  the  time,  created  by  the  exigencies  of  war,  and 
which  must  be  met  at  all  events,  that  the  establishment  of  a 
University  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  twelve  hundred 
miles  off,  may  well  appear,  at  first  sight,  a  matter  of 
secondary  and  remote  interest,  which  belongs  to  other  people, 
and  can  quietly  be  set  aside  to  wait  its  turn.  The  success 
of  my  appeal  depends  upon  answering  this  fair  and  natural 
objection.  I  must  prove  to  you  that  this  is  an  exceptional 
case,  which  not  only  justifies  but  requires  exceptional  treat- 
ment. I  must  present  before  you  a  work  of  unquestionable 
and  rare  importance,  which  is  not  of  merely  local  or  sec- 
tional interest,  but  which  belongs  to  the  cause  of  liberal 
culture,  polite  learning,  enlarged  humanity,  and  by  the 
accomplishment  of  which  we  shall  do  a  work  of  Christian 
philanthropy,  of  patriotism,  —  strictly  speaking,  a  national 
work.  For  the  establishment  of  a  University,  upon  the 
broad  foundation  of  unsectarian  Christian  principles,  in  a 
region  like  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  the  central  region 
of  the  United  States,  whose  population  is  destined  hereafter 
to  give  tone  and  character,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  to  the 
political  existence  of  the  whole  country,  may  well  be  called 
a  Christian  enterprise  ;  and  its  success  will  be  an  enduring 
national  benefit.  The  blotting-out  of  Harvard  University 
would  be  a  loss,  not  only  to  Massachusetts  and  New  England, 
but  to  the  nation  and  the  civilized  world. 

The  work  which  we  have  undertaken,  and  already  brought 
to  the  point  of  almost  certain  success,  is  the  establishment 
at  St.  Louis  of  a  University  which  shall  be  to  the  whole 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi  what  Harvard  University  has  been 
to  New  England,  and  which  shall  hold  a  place  with  her,  as 
a  daughter  with  a  mother,  in  the  Republic  of  Learning. 

We  feel  ourselves,  in  the  main,  strong  enough  to  accom- 
plish the  task,  great  as  it  is  ,*  but,  at  the  present  juncture, 


arc  in  need  of  the  assistance  for  which  I  now  appeal  to  you. 
We  ask  it,  however,  not  as  mendicants  asking  alms,  but  as 
workers  for  a  common  cause,  in  the  broadest  field  of  human 
culture,  who  have  put  their  own  shoulders  to  the  wheel, 
and  mean  to  keep  them  there,  although  calling  upon  Her- 
cules for  help. 

To  succeed  in  my  attempt,  I  must  show  you  — 

That  it  is  a  vitally  important  and  practicable  work ; 

That  it  needs  to  be  done  thoroughly  and  without  de- 
lay ; 

That  it  is  already  upon  a  good  foundation;  and  that  those 
who  have  it  in  hand  have  proved  themselves  strong  and 
faithful,  so  that  it  is  wise  and  safe  to  give  them  what  they 
ask. 

Perhaps  this  last  point  is  the  most  important ;  for  I  be- 
lieve that  the  hesitation  of  wealthy  men  to  give  large  sums 
of  money  generally  comes,  not  from  an  unwillingness  to 
give,  but  from  their  want  of  confidence  in  the  agents  by 
whom  it  is  to  be  applied.  It  is  incumbent  upon  me,  there- 
fore, even  at  the  risk  of  egotism,  to  report  progress,  to 
render  an  account  of  my  own  stewardship  as  an  agent  and 
missionary  in  the  time  past,  so  that  you  may  judge  of  our 
trustworthiness  for  the  future. 

Thirty  years  ago,  I  was  ordained  as  an  evangelist  or  mis 
sionary  for  the  West,  in  the  Federal-street  Church  of  Boston. 
This  is  the  only  ordination  or  installation  I  have  ever 
received ;  nor  has  any  other  form  of  ministerial  settlement 
ever  been  used.  I  may  perhaps,  without  arrogance,  claim 
to  have  acted  under  that  original  seal  of  sanction  from  that 
time  to  this  ;  and  the  church  of  which  I  am  the  minister 
may  justly  be  accounted  a  mission-church  of  your  found- 
ing. 

When  I  went  westward,  it  was  by  a  stage-coach  journey 


8 


of  three  days  and  nights  from  Baltimore  to  Pittsburg,  and 
by  a  three-weeks'  weary  steamboating  to  St.  Louis.  There, 
after  three  or  four  months  of  youthful  effort,  my  congrega- 
tion (at  first,  through  the  influence  of  curiosity,  more  than 
a  hundred)  had  steadily  dwindled,  until  it  numbered  from 
eight  to  twenty,  with  a  prospect  of  continued  decrease,  and 
with  the  seeming  certainty  of  soon  reaching  the  vanishing 
point ;  but  there  were  a  few  warm  hearts  there  which  had 
the  sap  of  life  in  them,  and  refused  to  die.  Some  of  them 
are  still  bravely  working,  but  nearly  all  have  fallen  asleep. 
We  were  not  easily  discouraged.  The  thought  of  abandon- 
ing the  cause  did  not  occur  to  us ;  and  we  determined,  God 
helping,  to  build  a  church.  By  the  utmost  exertion,  we 
could  raise  a  thousand  dollars  there ;  and  I  came,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  to  the  fountain-head  of  our  enterprise  to 
solicit  aid,  with  small  promise  of  success,  and  with  little 
encouragement  from  anybody,  at  first,  but  with  most  liberal 
and  satisfactory  result.  In  Boston  and  elsewhere  we  re- 
ceived full  three  thousand  dollars  ;  which  was  more  than 
we  had  asked,  and  all  that  we  needed.  That  was  your  first 
bread  thrown  upon  the  Mississippi  waters.  Has  it  not  re- 
turned to  you,  in  the  only  way  you  expected  it  to  return, 
after  many  days  ?  For  I  remember,  that,  in  that  first  appeal, 
we  promised  to  regard  your  contributions,  not  as  a  gift,  but 
as  a  loan,  an  investment  in  our  hands ;  that,  receiving  it,  we 
would  pledge  ourselves  to  expend  in  charity  and  missionary 
enterprise  the  annual  interest  on  the  amount.  In  the  two 
years  while  building  our  church,  we  did  this,  and  could  do 
but  little  more ;  but  since  our  first  church  was  built,  until 
this  time,  we  have  expended  and  now  expend  annually, 
in  the  uses  just  named  (I  do  not  include  our  own 
support  or  educational  enterprises),  an  average  amount 
considerably  larger  than  the  principal  so  invested,  besides 
having  established  a  permanent  mission-house  at  a  cost  of 


twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  with  a  partial  endowment 
already  secured.  Our  first  church,  with  subsequent  enlarge- 
ment, cost  us  seventeen  thousand  dollars.  The  house  in 
which  we  now  worship,  the  Church  of  the  Messiah,  cost, 
with  land  and  furniture,  a  hundred  thousand,  nearly  all  of 
which  was  paid  by  direct  donation :  for,  after  the  first  sale 
of  pews,  it  appeared  that  our  debt  on  the  day  of  settlement 
would  exceed  fifty  thousand  dollars;  and  the  alternative 
was  bankruptcy  or  liberality.  The  latter  was  chosen  by 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  individuals ;  and,  at  the  first  balan- 
cing of  our  new  church-books,  we  had  no  debt,  and,  thank 
God,  have  never  had  any  since. 

For  the  ten  years  past,  our  parish  has  included  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  families,  with  an  average  of  two  hundred 
church-members,  and  three  hundred  and  fifty  to  four  hun- 
dred Sunday-school  scholars,  including  the  Mission-house 
School.  Such  has  been  the  growing-up  of  the  seed  sown  by 
friendly  hands ;  for,  be  it  remembered,  their  timely  help 
was  indispensable  to  us.  Without  it,  according  to  all 
human  judgment,  we  must  have  failed ;  and,  if  we  had 
failed  then,  a  long  series  of  unsuccessful  attempts  might 
and  probably  would  have  been  the  result.  It  was  the  timely 
aid,  the  right  thing  done  at  the  right  time,  that  gave  to  us  a 
healthy  infancy,  and  secured  subsequent  growth. 

But  I  should  do  great  injustice  to  our  missionary  church 
if  I  left  its  record  here.  You  have  perhaps  been  surprised 
and  pained  that  no  second  church  of  our  communion  has 
grown  up  in  St.  Louis  in  all  these  thirty  years ;  and  I  share 
deeply  in  the  regret,  almost  in  the  mortification.  Perhaps 
we  have  not  been  sectarian  or  controversial  enough :  but 
the  fact  is,  that  we  have  lived  in  a  city  of  rapid  growth, 
where  every  thing  was  to  be  done  at  once ;  and  all  manner 
of  work  has  been  pressing  upon  us  all  the  time.  In  all 
enterprises  of  charity,  philanthropy,  education,  and  public 


10  < 

improvement,  the  harvest  has  been  great,  and  the  laborers 
few ;  and,  of  these,  the  Church  of  the  Messiah  has  always 
furnished  a  generous  proportion.  We  have  only  one  church 
to  this  day  ;  but  I  keep  within  the  literal  truth  in  saying, 
that  in  the  establishment  of  public  schools,  of  asylums, 
hospitals,  institutions  of  charity  and  learning  of  whatever 
kind,  and  in  the  general  ameliorating  influences  of  society, 
no  denomination  of  Christians  has  done  more  than  our  single 
Church  of  the  Messiah.  It  was  not  sectarian  seed  that  you 
sowed,  and  the  crop  has  not  been  sectarian. 

Especially,  at  this  time  of  national  trial,  would  I  speak 
with  pride  and  gratitude  of  the  influence  steadily  exerted 
in  the  direction  of  loyalty  and  freedom.  I  do  not  claim 
ever  to  have  been  a  bold  or  radical  reformer ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  am,  by  nature  and  principle,  of  the  moderate 
school.  Most  dearly  do  I  love  the  quiet  and  gentle  agencies 
by  which  God  brings  to  pass  the  grandest  results.  The  still 
small  voice  speaks  more  pleasantly  to  my  ears,  more  forcibly, 
more  like  the  divine  voice,  than  the  mighty  wind  and  earth- 
quake. My  congregation  also  has  been  composed  of  diverse 
materials  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  with  all  gradations 
of  culture,  not  one-fourth  of  them  educated  in  what  is 
called  Liberal  faith ;  with  all  shades  of  political  opinion ; 
with  extreme  diversity  of  social  prejudices,  from  the  pro- 
slavery  secessionist  to  the  abolitionist  of  the  most  ultra 
school.  But  I  rejoice  to  believe,  that,  in  its  steady  and 
quiet  working,  our  church  has  exercised  not  only  a  real  but 
a  marked  and  visible  influence  in  preparing  the  community 
for  the  terrible  shock  of  rebellion,  and  in  saving  Missouri 
from  the  ruinous  vortex  of  secession.  The  conflict  was 
much  closer  with  us  than  you  can  easily  understand ;  and 
the  issue  for  a  long  time  trembled  in  the  balance.  For  six 
months,  the  Confederate  flag  was  flaunted  in  the  streets ; 
and  the  city  authorities  feared  to  excite  a  mob  by  taking  it 


11 


down.  Not  a  single  national  (lag  was  openly  shown,  during 
this  period,  from  one  end  of  the  city  to  the  other;  but  there 
were  hundreds  of  Union  hearts  taking  counsel  together,  and 
thousands  of  Union  hands  getting  ready  to  resist.  Of  these, 
our  friends  supplied  not  a  few  of  the  boldest,  most  energetic, 
and  resolute  ;  and  our  whole  undivided  moral  influence,  by 
word  and  act,  by  pew  and  pulpit,  was  given  to  the  Union 
cause.  They  who  adhered  to  the  other  side  left  us  in  the 
beginning  of  the  strife ;  and  the  places  which  knew  them 
have  known  them  no  more.  Some  of  them  I  was  sorry  to 
lose,  and  am  sorry  still ;  for  they  were  persons,  both  men 
and  women,  whom  I  respected  and  loved  ;  and  I  hope,  when 
the  delusions  of  the  hour  have  passed,  they  will  return  to 
receive  the  welcome  that  is  ready  for  them.  But  our  duty 
was  too  plain  for  hesitation ;  and  with  steadfastness  of  pur- 
pose we  have  tried  to  perform  it. 

With  pride  I  think  of  these  things,  and  devoutly  thank 
God  for  them,  now  that  the  danger  is  past,  and  our  State 
is  loyal  and  free ;  but  I  should  not  be  excusable  in  speaking 
of  them,  if  it  were  not  to  strengthen  myself  in  a  new  rela- 
tion, by  showing  that  the  former  seed,  sown  on  the  waters, 
has  returned  after  many  days  in  fruits  of  loyalty  and  patriot- 
ism not  less  than  in  those  of  charity  and  religion. 

The  part  we  have  taken  in  the  humanities  of  the  war,  you 
already  know.  The  people  of  St.  Louis  have  worked  faith- 
fully and  well ;  but  the  helping  hand  of  New  England  made 
the  whole  difference  whether  we  could  do  the  work  which 
providentially  devolved  upon  us  or  not.  At  first,  three  years 
ago,  we  were  almost  devoid  of  means  and  strength  for  any 
work  of  loyalty  ;  and,  at  the  time  of  our  first  modest  appeal 
to  the  women  of  New  England,  —  may  God  bless  them !  — 
our  infant  Sanitary  Commission  had  not  a  dollar  in  the 
treasury,  nor  a  garment  in  the  storehouse.  The  necessities 
of  the  sick  and  wounded  daily  increased.     Their  cry  for 


12 


help  came  to  us  night  and  day.  We  began  to  be  in  despair 
at  the  magnitude  of  the  task  we  had  undertaken.  Then, 
unexpectedly,  in  answer  to  that  humble  request,  from  the 
generous  heart  of  New  England  there  began  to  flow  an 
uninterrupted  and  continually  increasing  stream  of  bounty, 
which  filled  our  storehouses  to  overflowing.  To  our  own 
surprise,  and  that  of  the  whole  community,  we  were  able 
to  meet  every  call  for  help,  and  to  extend  our  labors  over 
the  whole  Western  Department ;  nor  have  we  been  under 
the  necessity,  up  to  the  present  hour,  of  refusing  any  applica- 
tion for  the  relief  of  suffering,  in  the  hospital  or  camp,  in 
the  army  or  navy,  among  our  own  troops  or  the  prisoners 
in  our  military  prisons,  whether  the  applicants  were  white 
or  black,  bond  or  free.  The  half-million  dollars  sent  to  us 
by  New  England  has  done  an  untold  amount  of  good.  It 
has  not  only  been  one-third  of  our  whole  receipts,  but, 
coming  promptly  and  almost  unsolicited  as  it  did,  it  stimu- 
lated and  made  available  all  the  rest.  It  was  the  seed  sown 
by  the  waters,  on  fruitful  soil ;  and  we  may  reasonably  say, 
that  every  tiling  that  the  Western  Commission  at  St.  Louis 
has  done  is  due  to  the  cordial  and  timely  helping  of  our 
New-England  friends.  The  largeness  and  importance  of 
that  work  you  have  yourselves  the  means  of  estimating; 
but  probably  you  will  never  know  the  amount  of  good  to 
the  Union  cause  from  the  fact  of  the  gifts  coming  direct 
from  New  England  to  the  West.  It  was  a  time  when  there 
was  a  great  deal  of  foolish  talk  about  Yankee  selfishness 
and  thrift,  and  demagogues  prated  about  leaving  New  Eng- 
land out  in  the  cold,  —  as  if  they  could  ever  be  in  the  cold, 
who  carry  the  heat  in  their  own  bosoms  !  —  when  this  prac- 
tical answer  of  brotherhood  was  given.  Massachusetts 
women  replied  to  the  reproach  and  threat  by  sending  to 
Missouri  troops  all  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  the  sick- 
room.     They  sent  stands  of  colors  to  Iowa  regiments  in 


13 


Arkansas.  They  kept  our  storehouses  full  of  the  works 
of  their  own  hands,  labelled  all  over  with  kind  messages  of 
praise  and  love  for  the  brave  Western  boys ;  so  that  not  a 
single  regiment  of  all  the  Western  States  failed  to  know 
that  New  England  was  taking  care  of  them  as  if  they  were 
her  own.  As  indeed  they  were  ;  for  we  are  all  members  of 
one  body.  But  the  directness  of  the  sympathy  did  a  world 
of  good,  far  more  than  if  the  same  relief  had  proceeded 
from  a  general  fund.  It  was  the  "  cords  of  love  "  binding 
the  East  and  the  West  together ;  and  no  more  effectual 
agency  of  Union  was  ever  employed.  I  am  glad  of  this 
opportunity  of  expressing  to  you  the  warmth  of  gratitude 
everywhere  felt  among  our  Western  troops.  They  have 
fought  better  for  it ;  and  you  know  they  have  fought  well. 
Let  New  England  ever  be  in  danger,  and  every  Western 
man  will  be  a  soldier  in  her  defence  !  God  grant  that  you 
may  never  know  what  it  is  to  surfer  as  we  have  suffered  in 
Missouri !  You  know  nothing  of  the  evils  of  civil  war  here 
as  we  know  them ;  but  you  have  given  a  "  portion  to  seven, 
and  also  to  eight,"  let  come  whatever  evils  may  upon  the 
earth. 

The  effects  of  the  war  upon  Missouri  have  been  especially 
calamitous.  We  have  suffered  the  usual  fate  of  "  debata- 
ble ground,"  and  have  been  devastated  and  laid  waste  by 
both  armies.  Nor  are  these  words  used  figuratively. 
Many  whole  counties  have  been  literally  depopulated.  On 
some  of  the  principal  roads  you  may  travel  fifty  miles,  with- 
out finding  a  farm  with  buildings  or  fences  standing.  A 
large  part  of  the  country  merchants,  traders,  and  farmers 
have  been  made  bankrupt.  The  St.  Louis  merchants  lost, 
almost  without  qualification,  every  thing  that  was  due  to 
them  from  the  interior;  while  their  whole  Southern  trade 
was  suddenly  and  entirely  cut  off.  We  have  suffered  just 
as  Boston  did  by  the  embargo  previous  to  the  war  of  1812 ; 


14 


and,  for  nearly  three  years,  business  was  completely  pros- 
trated. It  will  take  many  years  of  quiet  and  prosperity  to 
regain,  throughout  the  State,  its  former  condition  of  social 
wealth.  Still  more,  a  complete  revolution  has  taken  place, 
not  yet  perfected,  in  the  industrial  interests  of  society ;  in- 
volving the  necessity  of  the  re-organization  of  the  working 
classes  in  all  the  relations  between  employer  and  employed. 
I  do  not  speak  of  this  with  regret,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
with  joy  and  thankfulness.  Herein  we  shall  find  the  great 
and  sufficient  compensation  for  all  present  and  past  suffer- 
ing, the  abundant  reward  of  loyalty,  that  Missouri  is  becom- 
ing, and  has  already  in  principle  become,  a  free  State. 
But  you  will  readily  see  that  a  radical  social  change  like 
this,  taking  place  suddenly,  without  the  needful  moral  pre- 
paration, in  the  midst  of  civil  commotion  and  guerilla  war, 
involves  change  in  every  thing.  Old  things  must  pass 
away ;  all  things  must  be  made  new :  those  are  the  right 
words ;  for  it  is,  properly  speaking,  the  regeneration  of  so- 
ciety,—  new  modes  of  life;  new  ideas  of  well-being  and 
respectability  ;  new  estimates  of  labor  and  the  laboring 
classes ;  new  principles  of  political  economy ;  new  sources 
of  prosperity. 

And  what  are  the  agencies  by  which  such  great  changes 
can  be  directed  and  controlled,  so  as  to  result  in  permanent 
good  ?  They  are  but  two,  —  Religion  and  Education.  The 
whole  rising  generation,  of  both  sexes,  must  be  educated 
upon  the  new  basis  of  freedom,  and  for  the  new  state  of 
things  which  freedom  is  inaugurating.  There  must  be  a 
new  moral  atmosphere,  by  breathing  which  in  the  churches, 
the  schools,  the  colleges,  the  young  may  be  healthfully  pre- 
pared for  the  new  responsibilities  to  be  devolved  upon  them. 
Such  influences  have  already  been  at  work  energetically  and 
effectually,  and  have  unquestionably  been  the  means  of 
saving  Missouri  to  the  Union.     Free  pulpits,  free  schools, 


15 


and  the  infusion  of  New-England  blood,  in  natural  alliance 
with  all  unconditional  Union  men,  especially  in  the  city 
of  St.  Louis,  have  been  the  leaven  of  salvation  to  the 
whole  State.  But  for  these,  Missouri  would  have  been  a 
rebel  State,  beyond  all  power  of  prevention  ;  and  it  is  now, 
by  the  continued  and  increased  efficiency  of  like  causes,  that 
the  social  reconstruction  must  be  perfected,  if  at  all.  And 
is  it  not  equally  evident,  that,  under  the  circumstances  in 
which  we  are  placed,  with  impaired  strength,  with  divided 
counsels,  with  partially  reconciled  interests,  with  the  oppo- 
sition of  old  but  not  inactive  ideas,  and  with  the  necessity 
of  immediate  results,  the  work  must  be  done  in  part  by 
missionary  and  fraternal  co-operation?  If  we  could  afford 
to  wait  to  do  a  gradual  work  for  a  gradually  progressive 
community,  it  would  be  different,  and  we  should  need  no 
help.  That  is  what  we  were  doing  before  the  Rebellion 
began ;  but  now,  under  greatly  increased  difficulties,  we 
must  forestall  opportunity,  and  do  the  work  of  ten  years  in 
one  year,  so  as  to  have  the  best  educational  agencies  at 
work  instantly,  and  with  full  power,  to  establish  the  right 
standard  of  thought  and  culture  by  which  the  destiny  of 
future  generations  will  be  determined. 

The  direct  influence  of  the  higher  institutions  of  learning 
upon  the  public  mind  and  morals  cannot  be  overestimated. 
It  is  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  the  public  free  schools  them- 
selves. The  character  of  a  community  depends  on  that  of 
its  leading  men.  Educate  the  leaders  of  society  in  just 
principles  of  statesmanship,  political  economy,  public  and 
private  morals,  and  you  are  educating  all.  Carry  refine- 
ment, liberal  culture,  good  taste,  the  love  of  learning,  into 
the  families  of  the  rich  and  influential,  and  you  will  soon 
give  tone  and  color  to  the  masses.  Let  the  upper  classes 
remain  under  false  systems  of  instruction,  and  the  multi- 
tude must  suffer  the  consequences.     How  sadly  we  have 


16 


seen  this  illustrated  at  the  present  crisis  in  the  Southern 
States  !  We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  the  Rebellion  is 
the  fruit  of  ignorance  among  the  masses  ;  but  quite  as  much 
can  it  be  referred  to  perverted  education,  and  want  of  ele- 
vated culture,  among  those  to  whom  the  masses  looked  for 
guidance.  The  founders  of  a  university  are  a  power  behind 
legislation,  and  control  it.  They  put  the  pilot  on  board  the 
ship,  and  save  it.  It  is  good  to  have  educated  followers  : 
we  must  have  educated  leaders.  If  the  blind  lead  the  blind, 
both  fall  into  the  ditch. 

In  a  note  to  Palfrey's  "  History  of  New  England,"  I  find 
an  assertion,  made  by  Lord  Cornwallis,  that  the  founding  of 
Harvard  College  hastened  American  Independence  by  a 
hundred  years.  We  may  add,  that  the  record  of  its  alumni 
has  become  an  important  part  of  the  history  of  the  United 
States. 

With  convictions  such  as  these,  and  under  the  deepest 
sense  of  responsibility,  we  have  been  acting  for  many  years 
past,  and  are  now  hastening  our  work  by  the  necessity  of 
the  case.  We  are  beginning  no  new  plan  ;  and  are  reluc- 
tantly compelled  to  ask  aid,  which,  under  different  circum- 
stances, would  have  been  unnecessary  to  complete  the  plans 
begun. 

In  my  first  appeal,  I  asked  your  help  to  build  a  Christian 
Church ;  promising  to  make  it  equal  to  its  best  prototypes, 
if  we  could. 

We  are  now  engaged  in  a  more  general  work,  to  establish 
on  Western  soil  an  American  University,  with  the  determi- 
nation to  improve  upon  our  originals,  if  we  can,  by  greater 
breadth  of  foundation  in  the  beginning,  and  by  higher  reach 
of  study  in  the  course  of  time. 

Let  me  recite  to  you  our  progress  thus  far,  that  you  may 
judge  of  what  remains  to  be  done. 

Ten  years  ago,  a  St.  Louis  merchant,  being  a  member  of 


17 


the  Missouri  State  Legislature,  happened  to  sec  on  the  desk 
of  a  colleague  an  educational  charter  which  struck  him  as 
particularly  good.  Without  consultation  with  any  one,  he 
selected  seventeen  names  of  personal  friends,  adopted  the 
charter,  with  a  few  modifications,  under  the  name  of  Eliot 
Seminary,  and  obtained  its  passage.  It  took  us  by  surprise, 
and,  at  first  thought,  caused  some  amusement,  for  none  of 
us  had  dreamed  of  such  a  thing;  and  an  educational  enter- 
prise seemed  quite  beyond  our  strength.  But,  upon  exami- 
nation of  the  charter,  it  was  found  to  be  a  document  of 
extraordinary  merit,  and  capable  of  the  grandest  use.*  Its 
possession  constituted  a  divine  call;  and,  after  talking  it 
over  for  a  year,  we  determined  to  organize  under  it,  and  go 
to  work.  Nine  years  of  very  hard  work  it  has  been,  and  not 
altogether  without  result. 

The  puzzle  at  first  was  where  to  begin.  The  whole  edu- 
cational field  was  open  before  us,  unoccupied  except  by  the 
public  schools  and  a  few  indifferent  private  seminaries. 
Whether  to  establish  a  boys'  or  a  girls'  school,  an  institution 
for  the  industrial  classes,  or  a  scientific  school,  or  a  college, 
was  for  some  time  held  in  doubt.  At  last,  we  found  that 
one  would  not  interfere  with  another,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
that,  by  uniting  many  interests,  each  would  be  promoted  ; 
and  we  determined  to  undertake  them  all.  Our  charter 
authorized  us  to  establish  any  thing  we  pleased,  to  hold  an 
unlimited  amount  of  property  free  of  all  taxation,  and  to 
direct  our  affairs  according  to  our  own  judgment.  We 
determined  not  to  let  such  privileges  die  for  want  of  use. 
It  looked  like  rashness  or  over-ambition,  but  has  proved  to 
be  the  highest  prudence. 

The  first  and  obvious  action  was  to  change  the  name,  so 
as  to  avoid  personal  and  sectarian  interests ;  and,  by  a  pro- 

*  Appendix  A. 
3 


18 


digious  stride,  Eliot  Seminary  grew  at  one  step  into  Wash- 
ington University,  —  a  name  suggested  by  the  accident  of 
our  charter  being  signed  on  the  22d  of  February,  and  by 
our  organization  on  the  same  day  of  the  ensuing  year.  It 
was  also  appropriate  as  indicating  the  unsectarian  and  unpo- 
litical, but  yet  the  American  and  Christian,  basis  on  which 
we  had  determined  to  build. 

The  general  result  of  the  nine-years'  work,  without  trou- 
bling you  with  details,  is  as  follows  :  A  practical  or  indus- 
trial department,  which  we  call  the  Polytechnic  Institute. 
It  has  a  reading-room,  and  library  of  seven  thousand  volumes, 
for  mechanics  and  apprentices ;  its  evening  schools  and 
scientific  lectures,  and  all  the  various  plans  and  arrange- 
ments which  can  promote  the  improvement  and  education 
of  the  industrial  classes. 

A  female  department,  called  "  Mary  Institute  "  (a  name 
suggestive  of  home  virtues),  with  a  hundred  and  twenty 
scholars,  in  a  convenient  building  erected  for  the  purpose 
and  admirably  located,  and  with  a  corps  of  teachers  nowhere 
to  be  excelled.  It  is  an  excellent  school,  a  daily  benedic- 
tion to  the  community,  but  needing  additional  endowment 
to  secure  its  highest  usefulness.  It  is  under  the  University 
charter  and  control,  but  has  no  immediate  educational  con- 
nection with  the  University  proper,  except  in  the  partial 
privilege  of  its  lectures,  and  in  the  important  services  of  its 
professors  whenever  required. 

An  Academic  or  Preparatory  Department ;  called  Acade- 
mic, because,  at  the  time  when  established,  we  did  not  know 
whether  a  college  would  ever  follow.  It  corresponds  with 
the  Boston  Latin  School  or  Exeter  Academy ;  and  we  are 
striving  to  make  it  as  good,  in  all  the  work  of  preparatory 
education.  It  includes  a  "  commercial "  class,  in  which  the 
classical  languages  are  not  studied. 

The  Scientific  and  Collegiate  Departments  are  established 


19 


with  a  curriculum  of  study  not  materially  different  from 
that  of  Cambridge,  but  with  the  addition  of  the  modern 
languages ;  and  we  hope  soon  to  add  two  years  of  a  post- 
graduate or  properly  university  course.  In  the  Preparatory 
and  College  Departments,  there  are  now  not  quite  two  hun- 
dred students.  The  standard  of  study  is  as  high,  and  the 
system  of  instruction  as  thorough,  as  anywhere  in  the  United 
States ;  and  our  professors  are  men  who  stand  upon  equal 
ground  with  those  in  the  older  colleges.  There  is  room  for 
indefinite  improvement  and  enlargement ;  but  it  is  some- 
thing to  have  a  right  theory  of  action,  and  a  true  ideal. 

You  will  observe  that  our  Western  University  has  three 
leading  and  characteristic  peculiarities.  First,  It  is  entirely, 
and,  so  far  as  human  arrangement  can  secure  it,  perma- 
nently, free  from  sectarian  and  political  control. 

Secondly,  It  extends  to  womanhood  the  same  educational 
advantages,  so  far  as  practicable,  as  are  acknowledged  to  be 
requisite  to  make  manhood  strong. 

Thirdly,  It  plants  itself  upon  the  broad  foundation  of 
practical  and  social  life,  with  belief  that  the  interchangeable 
relations  thus  established  between  men  of  the  highest  cul- 
ture and  men  of  practical  skill,  between  the  thinking  head 
and  the  working  hand,  will  do  them  both  good.* 

To  these  I  may  add,  that  we  dispense  with  the  "  dormi- 
tory "  system  usual  in  colleges,  and  thereby  avoid  a  large 
part  of  the  annoyances  and  demoralizing  influences  of  college 
life. 

Do  not,  however,  be  deceived  by  words.  A  university 
upon  paper  may  be  a  very  small  affair  in  fact ;  and  so,  in 
some  respects,  it  is,  and  for  a  long  time  will  be,  with  us, 
in  comparison  with  the  old  institutions.  We  have,  for  exam- 
ple, as  yet  no  College  Library,  and  are  compelled  to  send  our 

*  Appendix  B. 


20 


students  to  the  Mercantile  Library,  at  a  distance  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile.  We  have  almost  no  philosophical 
apparatus ;  although  we  have  an  excellent  chemical  labora- 
tory well  furnished,  and  an  educational  observatory,  with  a 
good  telescope  and  other  needful  instruments.  Our  profes- 
sors are  learned  and  accomplished  men :  but  we  have  not  more 
than  half  enough  of  them ;  and  those  whom  we  have  are 
overworked,  and,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  underpaid.  We  are  also 
obliged  to  depend  partly  upon  gratuitous  labor,  which  in 
such  cases  is  never  the  best ;  and,  for  several  years  past,  I 
have  myself  occupied  the  chair  of  Intellectual  and  Moral 
Philosophy  and  cognate  studies,  —  a  laborious  duty,  from 
which  I  am  most  anxious  to  be  relieved.  Worst  of  all,  the 
college  classes  are  small,  and  must  be  so  for  many  years  to 
come.  Perhaps  an  average  of  ten  graduates  is  all  we  should 
promise  ourselves  for  some  years ;  for  we  have  adopted  a 
rule  to  give  degrees  to  no  one,  except  on  examination, 
which  causes  a  great  many  _to  drop  off  midway  in  their 
career.  Our  hope  of  success  is  not  in  quantity,  but  quality. 
There  are  enough  second-rate  colleges,  which  ought  to  be 
called  academies  or  high-schools,  already ;  and  we  do  not 
mean  to  make  one  more.  To  establish  a  proper  standard  of 
classical  and  scientific  culture  is  our  great  aim,  in  part 
already  attained ;  and  we  would  rather  graduate  one  good 
scholar  annually  than  a  hundred  poor  ones.  It  would  also 
be  a  greater  work  ;  for  the  hundred  are  soon  lost  in  the 
crowd,  the  one  is  the  teacher  and  renovator  of  society. 

With  all  these  admissions  of  weakness,  we  are  now  edu- 
cating three  hundred  pupils ;  nearly  all  of  them  those  who 
will  occupy  the  prominent  places  in  the  community.  Fifty 
of  the  whole  number  are  educated  without  pecuniary  re- 
turns. The  scholars  in  the  Polytechnic  Evening  Schools, 
at  one  time  numbering  four  hundred,  are  all  taught  gratui- 
tously.    Our  aim  is  to  give  the  best  education  at  the  lowest 


21 


possible  price,  and  thus  to  obtain  a  controlling  and  elevating 
influence  upon  the  educational  interests  of  the  West. 

The  financial  condition  of  the  University,  in  its  various 
departments,  is  reasonably  good,  and  affords  a  basis  for  suc- 
cessful action  in  the  future. 

The  College  buildings  and  laboratory,  with  the  ground  on 
which  they  stand,  cost  us  seventy-nine  thousand  dollars. 
They  arc  adequate  to  the  proper  care  of  three  hundred 
pupils. 

The  Female  Seminary  cost,  for  building  and  lot,  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  and  is  now  worth  more. 

We  have  unimproved  land  in  the  city  limits,  worth,  at 
present  valuation,  eighty-five  thousand  dollars.  It  has  been 
given  to  us  from  time  to  time,  and  will  eventually  be  of 
considerable  value. 

There  is  also  a  small  endowment-fund  of  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars,  yielding  six  thousand  per  annum. 

The  Polytechnic  Institute,  though  an  important  and  vital 
part  of  the  whole  enterprise,  has  never  been  permitted  to 
embarrass  the  rest,  and  is  now  in  secure  condition.  The 
edifice  in  progress  of  erection  is  in  the  central  part  of  the 
city ;  built  of  stone,  a  hundred  and  five  by  a  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  feet  on  the  ground,  and  five  stories  high,  with  a 
basement  for  machinery  and  steam-power.  Ample  funds  are 
already  provided  for  its  completion,  which  will  require  ten 
or  twelve  months  :  and  the  total  outlay  will  not  fall  short  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  dollars  ;  a  large  sum,  but 
we  wish  to  make  it  a  representative  building  of  the  conjoined 
industrial  and  educational  interests.  It  is  also  constructed 
to  yield  a  revenue,  from  stores  and  lecture-rooms,  probably 
of  four  or  five  per  cent  on  the  whole  investment ;  which 
will  partially  sustain  the  Institute  in  its  legitimate  opera- 
tions. 

The  nine  years  in  which  this  progress  has  been  made 


22 


have  been,  for  the  great  part,  years  of  difficulty  and 
embarrassment.  The  first  two  years,  1855  and  1856,  were 
prosperous;  but  1857  was  a  year  of  financial  crisis  in  St. 
Louis,  and  only  by  the  utmost  exertion  did  we  stem  the 
adverse  tide.  Things  were  beginning  to  look  better  in  1858 
and  1859,  when  the  muttering  thunder  of  Rebellion,  at  first 
mistaken  for  the  noise  of  a  popular  tumult,  began  to  be 
heard.  The  "real  conflict  in  St.  Louis  commenced  a  full 
year  before  you  felt  it  in  New  England,  or  believed  that  it 
would  come.  Social  animosities  became  very  bitter,  and  all 
public  enterprises  felt  the  malign  influence.  Then  followed 
the  three  years  of  Rebellion  and  civil  war,  shaking  our 
State  and  city  to  their  foundations,  and  threatening  the 
ruin  of  all. 

Such  are  not  the  nine  years  which  one  would  have  chosen 
for  philanthropic  schemes ;  and  failure  in  them  would  have 
been  no  disgrace.  That  we  have  not  failed,  but  regularly 
advanced,  is  due  to  the  great  exertions  and  personal  sacri- 
fices of  a  few  men.  Obstacles  have  been  converted  into 
helps,  difficulties  into  encouragements,  by  the  redoubled 
energy  which  they  have  called  forth. 

In  the  year  preceding  the  war,  the  climax  of  difficulty  was 
reached.  It  seemed  as  if  our  hold  on  the  community  was 
failing,  and  a  strong  partisan  opposition  was  growing  up 
against  every  thing  which  had  a  New-England  stamp.  For 
a  time,  I  almost  questioned  whether  we  could  ride  out  the 
storm ;  but  the  Directors  held  a  meeting,  looked  the  whole 
thing  in  the  face,  and  authorized  the  President  to  raise  an 
endowment  of  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  twenty-five 
thousand  to  complete  the  College  Building.  In  two  months' 
time,  by  great  exertion  and  self-sacrifice,  this  was  done ; 
a  part  of  the  endowment,  however,  being  in  real  estate. 
The  effort  secured  our  continued  existence ;  and,  with 
greatly   reduced    numbers,   we   were    enabled   to   go    on. 


23 


I  think  we  were  nearer  death  then  than  we  shall  ever  again 
be. 

In  the  present  year,  two  months  ago,  the  Polytechnic 
Institute  had  come  to  a  stand.  The  building  was  one-third 
finished,  and  had  been  standing  still  for  two  or  more  years. 
Meanwhile  prices  of  material  and  labor  had  advanced,  and 
the  estimates  had  to  be  nearly  doubled.  It  looked  like  a 
defeated  plan  ;  and  a  severe  blow  would  thus  have  been 
given  to  our  whole  Institution.  An  informal  meeting  was 
therefore  held  on  the  11th  of  last  March,  the  result  of  which 
has  been  that  seventy  thousand  dollars  have  been  sub- 
scribed and  secured  to  be  paid  in  progress  of  the  building, 
and  on  demand  ;  making  that  department  of  our  Institution 
virtually  an  accomplished  fact.  It  is  by  having  succeeded 
in  this  that  we  have  now  felt  encouraged  to  undertake  the 
completion  of  the  whole  work. 

The  total  amount  contributed  thus  far  in  the  establish- 
ment and  support  of  Washington  University,  as  shown  by 
our  books,  is  four  hundred  and  seventy-eight  thousand  dol- 
lars. Of  this,  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  endowment- 
fund,  is  yielding  a  revenue.  The  unimproved  real  estate 
cannot  be  productive  for  a  great  many  years  to  come.  A 
large  amount  has  been  used  for  the  buildings,  and  lots  on 
which  they  stand  ;  but  nothing  has  been  done  extravagantly. 
There  must  be  such  a  basis  for  every  institution.  It  is  the 
foundation,  without  which  growth  is  impossible.  I  am  able 
to  say  that  not  a  dollar  has  been  squandered  or  lost ;  and 
our  property  in  actual  possession  is  now  worth  the  total 
sum  above  expressed,  free  from  all  encumbrance  or  debt. 

Four-fifths  of  all  received  has  come  from  my  own  congre- 
gation ;  being,  for  seven  years,  an  annual  average  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  —  a  good  educational  return  from  the 
seed  sown  thirty  years  ago.  Nor  need  this  large  proportion 
surprise  you.     Our  Institution  is  strictly  unsectarian,  and 


24 


is  so  organized  that  it  cannot  be  converted  into  sectarian 
uses.  This  is  universally  recognized  by  those  who  send  the 
scholars.  But,  in  any  community,  the  number  who  will  take 
hold  of  unsectarian  work  is  small ;  and,  in  this  instance, 
the  fact  of  our  having  begun  the  enterprise  naturally  leaves 
the  burden  of  it  upon  us.  I  commend  it  to  you,  however, 
on  no  other  basis.  In  all  its  parts,  in  all  its  principles, 
in  all  its  development,  it  is  and  will  be  unsectarian.  Do 
not  give  a  dollar  to  it  on  any  other  expectation.  So  far  as 
sound  learning,  liberal  culture,  impartial  study,  and  the 
intercourse  with  men  who  can  impart  these,  may  contribute 
to  build  np  our  ideas  of  Christian  truth,  and  no  further, 
have  we  as  a  Church  any  tiling  to  gain  ;  but,  while  this  is 
true,  it  is  none  the  less  true,  that  the  labor  must  chiefly 
devolve  upon  those  who  began  it.  Men  of  large  mind  and 
unsectarian  thought  in  all  the  churches  are  working  with 
us ;  but  we  must  principally  depend  upon  ourselves. 

And  again  :  the  whole  number  in  any  community  who  are 
willing  to  give  liberally  to  such  enterprises  is  small.  Even 
in  Boston,  it  is  not  very  great ;  but  in  a  new  community  like 
St.  Louis,  where  the  first  necessity  is  to  create  a  demand  for 
advanced  education,  the  number  of  donors  will  be  propor- 
tionally less.  Accordingly,  I  find  that  eleven  individuals 
have  given  three  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Of  these,  only 
two  or  three  are  what  would  here  be  called  rich  men. 
Several  of  them  have  given  from  fifteen  to  thirty  per  cent 
of  all  they  are  worth  ;  and  one  at  least  has  given  sixty  per 
cent,  and  has  recently  expressed  his  willingness  to  give  one- 
half  of  the  remainder,  if  the  work  requires  it.  It  is  this 
earnest  resolution  of  a  few  men,  and  not  the  numbers  or 
the  wealth  of  the  donors,  to  which  our  progress  thus  far  is 
due. 

Most  earnestly  do  I  invite  your  co-operation  with  us.  It 
would  not  require  many  donors,  even  on  a  smaller  scale  of 


25 


munificence,  to  place  us  in  a  position  of  impregnable 
strength  ;  and  let  me  assure  you  that  the  enterprise  is 
almost  as  impersonal  to  us  as  it  would  be  to  you.  Our 
University  motto  is,  Non  nobis  solum  ("  Not  for  ourselves 
alone  ")  ;  and  our  motive  has  been,  as  purely  as  yours  would 
be,  the  desire  of  doing  good.  The  names  of  donors,  with 
amounts  given,  have  never  been  made  public  in  St.  Louis, 
and  are  known  to  very  few.  The  list  has  never  been  read 
or  presented  at  any  meeting  of  the  Directors  themselves, 
and  is  not  at  all  accurately  known  to  any  of  them, 
except  the  Treasurer  and  myself.  The  gentleman  who 
gave  the  lot  on  which  the  Polytechnic  Institute  stands 
bought  it  for  thirty-seven  thousand  dollars,  and  had  it  con- 
veyed directly  to  the  University ;  so  that  his  name  does  not 
appear  at  all.  Pardon  me  for  alluding  to  such  things.  I 
know  that  it  is  a  violation  of  good  taste  ;  but  I  am  speaking 
to  friends.  My  object  is  to  interest  you  in  a  great  work 
which  we  are  finding  beyond  our  unaided  strength  ;  and  I 
know  of  no  way  to  succeed  but  by  telling  the  truth  exactly 
as  it  is. 

My  appealing  to  you  at  all  is  solely  at  my  own  suggestion, 
not  by  the  advice  of  friends  at  home.  At  first,  they  op- 
posed it ;  for  we  have  felt  pride  in  doing  the  whole  work 
ourselves.  But  when  the  absolute  necessity  came  of  rais- 
ing additional  means,  not  only  for  employing  new  professors, 
but  to  keep  those  we  have,  —  money  depreciating  in  value, 
and  the  rate  of  interest  declining  more  and  more,  —  it 
seemed  to  me  unreasonable  and  unwise  to  ask  another  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  from  the  same  men  who  have 
already  done  so  much. 

And  yet  let  me  frankly  say,  that  what  we  shall  do 
will  be  increased,  not  diminished,  by  whatever  assistance  we 
receive.  If  I  could  obtain  here  the  full  amount  just  named 
for  endowment,  I  pledge  myself  to  gain  among  ourselves  an 

4 


26 


equal  additional  amount  in  course  of  the  next  two  years, 
so  as  to  accomplish  the  whole  work  in  the  most  thorough 
manner.  The  encouragement  thus  given  would  double  our 
own  zeal.  If  I  fail  here,  I  return  with  great  discourage- 
ment. Our  progress  will  be  slow  and  labored  ;  but,  never- 
theless, we  shall  not  abandon  the  enterprise. 

The  cost  of  advanced  education,  which  is  the  character- 
istic work  of  a  university,  is  far  greater  than  commonly 
supposed.  The  endowment  of  Columbia  College,  New 
York,  is  one  million  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
That  of  Harvard  is  only  a  little  less,  independently  of  its 
college  property ;  and  its  annual  income  is  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  which  is  not  enough.  Under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances,  we  shall  have  to  continue 
our  average  rate  of  giving,  ourselves,  for  many  years  to 
come,  and  still  look  for  the  gradual  accretions  which  time 
will  bring. 

I  know  how  incessant  are  the  demands.  It  seems  as  if 
there  were  no  end  of  them.  "  That  of  an  hour's  age  doth 
hiss  the  speaker ;  each  minute  teems  a  new  one."  It  is  so 
here,  and  it  is  so  with  us.  This  spring,  the  citizens  of  St. 
Louis  will  have  raised  among  themselves,  in  three  months, 
nearly  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  sanitary  uses, 
independently  of  all  other  demands.  We  are  living  at  an 
extraordinary  epoch,  which  justifies  and  requires  extraordi- 
nary action.  No  sacrifice  can  be  too  great,  no  generosity 
too  large,  for  the  exigencies  of  the  time.  A  new  day  is 
dawning  upon  us,  after  how  dark  a  night !  new  and  glorious 
hopes,  after  how  great  despondency !  It  is  the  hope  of  a 
true  national  existence.  It  is  the  day-dawning  of  a  real 
Republic,  in  which  slavery  and  secession,  the  twin  treasons, 
will  be  equally  impossible.  If  we  were  required  to  give  up 
every  thing  in  a  reconstruction  like  this,  the  purchase  would 
be  cheap.     Are  not  our  sons  and  brothers  giving  their  lives 


27 


for  it?  At  such  a  crisis,  it  is  competent  for  us  to  ask,  "  In 
what  direction  and  for  what  special  uses  shall  we  consecrate 
property  and  life  so  as  to  serve  our  country  best?"  but  not, 
"How  shall  we  best  keep  them  for  ourselves?"  "  Neither 
said  any  of  them  that  aught  of  the  things  he  possessed  was 
his  own,"  might  well  be  our  rule. 

Cast  your  mind  backward  to  three  years  ago,  and  see  what 
you  would  have  given  to  feel  as  we  all  feel  now.  It  is  a 
glorious  thing  that  we  have  a  Missouri  to  work  for !  She 
was  nearly  -gone,  snatched  like  a  brand  from  the  burning, 
an  empire  in  herself. 

"  Strengthen  the  things  that  remain."  That  was  the  text 
of  a  sermon  preached  in  Roxbury  three  years  since.  A 
good  earnest,  strong-hearted  sermon  it  was ;  but  to  prove 
wiiat?  That,  if  the  country  should  break  to  pieces,  New 
England  would  still  be  a  great  nation,  with  life  in  itself; 
and  so  it  would,  and  I  thank  God  for  that.  But  how  much 
better  is  it,  infinitely  better,  to  be  an  integral  part,  living 
members  of  this  great  Republic,  the  United  States  of 
America !  Such  is  our  hope  now.  For  this  we  are  work- 
ing, all  for  each,  and  each  for  all ;  "  and  whether  one 
member  suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it ;  and  one 
member  be  honored,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it."  It 
is  no  time  to  count  the  cost.  We  must  simply  do  all  we 
can ;   and,  as  our  day  is,  so  shall  our  strength  be. 

But  we  must  work  while  it  is  day,  or  the  night  may  come 
in  which  we  cannot  work.  It  is  no  time  for  waiting,  for 
hesitation.  No  good  cause  should  be  left  to  languish.  If 
so  left,  in  times  like  these,  the  best  enterprise  will  quickly 
die  ;  or  we  ourselves  may  die,  and  unfinished  work  dies  with 
the  worker.  Almost  finished,  almost  persuaded,  almost 
saved !  We  must  change  the  almost  to  quite,  and  give  no 
rest  to  our  souls  until  the  work  is  done. 

The  enterprise  in  which  we  ask  aid  is  not  merely  of  local 


28 


interest :  if  it  had  been,  I  should  not  have  come  here  now. 
The  Mississippi  Valley  is  the  central  region  of  the  Union ; 
and  Missouri  is  the  centre  of  it.  Whatever  tends  to  the 
moral  elevation  of  that  great  district  is  for  the  general  good. 
It  is  rapidly  gaining  the  strength  which  is  so  excellent  for 
the  giant  to  possess  ;  and,  we  trust,  will  never  be  disposed  to 
use  it  like  a  giant.  But  means  must  be  employed,  if  we 
would  secure  the  end.  In  the  time  of  war,  we  must  prepare 
for  peace.  No  more  important  work  can  present  itself  to 
the  Christian  patriot,  and  no  time  should  be  lost  in  doing 
it.  Surely  there  must  be  those,  even  before  the  strife  and 
conflict  cease,  who  will  regard  these  ultimate  interests 
wisely.  Unless  they  are  secured,  the  whole  object  of  the 
war  itself  will  be  lost.  A  true  social  reconstruction  of 
seciety  is  what  we  need,  and  religion  and  education  must  be 
the  agencies  employed  in  its  accomplishment. 

For  more  than  forty  years,  Missouri  has  been  the  battle- 
ground of  Slavery  and  Freedom.  It  was  there  that  the 
first  fatal  compromise  was  made,  and  afterwards  its  equally 
fatal  repeal.  By  its  convention,  the  first  ordinance  of 
emancipation  was  passed  ;  which,  with  all  its  imperfections, 
was  the  death  of  slavery,  and  made  the  soil  free,  —  the  first 
instance  in  all  history  of  a  people  divesting  themselves  of  the 
slave-power,  which  everywhere  else  has  required  emperors 
or  parliaments  or  presidential  proclamations  for  its  over- 
throw. 

Does  not  Missouri  deserve  well  of  the  whole  country  ? 
and  is  it  so  utterly  unreasonable  in  us,  who  have  striven  to 
hold  her,  and  are  striving  to  prepare  her  and  the  region 
about  for  the  rightful  use  of  the  influence  they  are  destined 
to  exert,  —  is  it  untimely  for  us  to  ask  your  aid  ?  It  may 
seem  like  a  large  amount,  two  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
for  increased  endowment.  But  less  will  not  do ;  and  some- 
how or  other,  and  somewhere,  I  must  find  it. 


29 


Do  not  measure  our  work  by  its  present  insignificance. 
"  The  house  that  is  building  is  not  like  the  house  that  is 
built."  The  seed  sown  is  good,  in  good  soil,  with  good  and 
improving  atmosphere,  by  the  side  of  the  Father  of  Waters  ; 
and  the  cultivators  to  whom  its  care  is  intrusted  are  faith- 
ful. With  continued  cultivation  and  enlarged  means  of 
culture,  it  will  grow  to  become  a  great  tree  ;  and  its  fruit 
shall  contribute  to  the  healing  of  the  nation. 


31 


APPENDIX. 


ORIGINAL    CHARTER. 

An  Act  to  incorporate  the  Eliot  Seminary. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Missouri  as 
follows :  — 

Sect.  1. — James  Smith,  John  How,  Hudson  E.  Bridge,  Wayman  Crow 
(with  thirteen  others),  and  their  associates  and  successors,  are  hereby 
constituted  a  body  corporate  and  politic,  by  the  name  of  "  The  Eliot  Semi- 
nary ;  "  and  by  that  name  shall  have  perpetual  succession,  and  be  capable  of 
taking  and  holding,  by  gift,  grant,  devise,  or  otherwise,  and  of  conveying, 
leasing,  or  otherwise  disposing  of,  any  estate,  real,  personal,  or  mixed,  annui- 
ties, endowments,  franchise,  and  other  hereditaments,  which  may  conduce  to 
the  support  of  said  Seminary,  or  to  the  promotion  of  its  objects.  All  property 
of  said  Corporation  shall  be  exempt  from  taxation ;  and  the  sixth,  seventh,  and 
eighteenth  sections  of  the  first  article  of  the  act  concerning  corporations,  ap- 
proved March  19,  1845,  shall  not  apply  to  this  Corporation. 

Sect.  2. —  The  management  of  the  affairs  of  this  Corporation  shall  be 
vested  in  a  Board  of  seventeen  Directors.  The  persons  herein  named  shall 
constitute  the  first  Board  of  Directors.  Vacancies  occurring  in  the  Board  by 
resignation,  death,  or  otherwise,  shall  be  filled  by  the  Board. 

Sect.  3.  —  The  Board  of  Directors  may  prescribe  the  course  of  instruction 
in  said  Seminary,  and  organize  the  Institution  under  such  regulations,  and 
provide  in  such  way,  as  they  may  deem  proper  for  the  appointment  of  its  pro- 
fessors, teachers,  and  other  officers  ;  and  may  make  such  by-laws  and  rules  as 
they  may  deem  necessary  for  the  management  of  the  Institution. 

Sect.  4.  —  This  act  shall  take  effect  upon  its  passage. 

Approved  Feb.  22,  1854. 

The  present  Board  of  Directors  is  composed  of  the  following 
persons  :  John  How,  Wayman  Crow,  John  M.  Krum,  John 
O'Fallon,  James  Smith,  Seth  A.  Ranlett,  Charles  A.  Pope,  Tho- 
mas T.  Gantt,  George  Partridge,  James  II.  Lucas,  Hudson  E. 


32 


Bridge,  Henry  Hitchcock,  James  E.  Yeatman,  Samuel  Treat ;  and 
William  Gr.  Eliot,  President.  Vacancies,  as  they  occur,  are  filled 
without  reference  to  any  thing  except  willingness  and  ability  to 
work. 


AMENDMENT   OF    CHARTER. 

Upon  application  of  the  Directors,  the  following  amendment  to 
the  charter  was  obtained,  in  1857 :  — 

An  Act  to  amend  an  Act  entitled  "An  Act  to  incorporate  the  Eliot  Seminary." 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Missouri  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

Sect.  1.  —  The  name  of  the  Corporation  now  known  as  the  "Eliot  Semi- 
nary "  shall  henceforth  be  "  Washington  University ; "  by  which  name  the 
said  Corporation  shall  have,  hold,  and  enjoy  all  the  property,  rights,  franchise 
and  endowments,  immunities  and  privileges,  conferred  upon  and  belonging  to 
the  "  Eliot  Seminary." 

Sect.  2.  —  No  instruction  either  sectarian  in  religion,  or  party  in  politics, 
shall  be  allowed  in  any  department  of  said  University ;  and  no  sectarian  or 
party  test  shall  be  allowed  in  the  election  of  professors,  teachers,  or  other 
officers  of  said  University,  or  in  the  admission  of  scholars  thereto,  or  for  any 
purpose  whatever. 

Sect.  3.  — It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  said  Univer- 
sity, upon  being  informed  of  any  violation  of  the  second  section  of  this  act, 
forthwith  to  institute  an  inquiry  into  the  charge  or  charges  that  may  be  pre- 
ferred, in  respect  thereof,  by  any  credible  person,  in  writing,  against  any 
officer  of  said  University ;  and,  if  it  shall  appear  that  any  officer  of  said  Uni- 
versity has  violated  the  said  second  section  of  this  act,  the  Board  of  Directors 
shall  forthwith  remove  such  person  so  offending  from  any  office  which  he 
may  then  fill  in  any  department  of  said  University;  and  such  person  so 
removed  shall  be  for  ever  thereafter  ineligible  to  any  office  in  said  Univer- 
sity. 

Sect.  4.  —  In  case  the  Board  of  Directors,  upon  being  notified  in  writing, 
by  any  credible  person,  of  a  violation  of  the  second  section  of  this  act,  shall 
refuse  or  neglect  to  investigate  the  charge  hereupon  preferred  against  any 
officer  of  said  University,  it  shall  be  competent  for  the  St.  Louis  Circuit  Court 
or  the  St.  Louis  Court  of  Common  Pleas  to  compel  the  Board  of  Directors, 
by  mandamus,  to  perform  their  duty  in  investigating  such  charge,  and  to  show 
their  performance  of  such  duty  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Court  having  cogni- 
zance of  the  matter  ;  and  all  proceedings  under  this  section  shall  be  summary, 
and  conducted  to  a  conclusion  with  as  little  delay  as  possible ;  and  the  power 
hereby  given  to  said  Courts  may  be  exercised  by  the  Judge  of  either  of  said 
tribunals  in  vacation. 


33 


EXTRACT  FROM  CATALOGUE  OF  1858. 

The  present  members  of  the  Corporation  have  no  sectarian 
purpose  to  serve.  They  earnestly  desire  that  the  University 
.should  attain  a  high  moral  and  religious  character  as  a  Christian 
Institution  in  a  Christian  republic  ;  but  they  equally  desire  that 
the  narrow  principles  of  sectarianism  and  party-spirit  may  never 
be  allowed  to  enter.  They  have  undertaken  to  establish,  upon  a 
broad  American  foundation,  an  Institution  of  learning,  practical 
science,  and  art;  and,  under  the  blessing  of  God,  nothing  shall 
divert  them  from  their  purpose. 

On  the  22d  of  April,  1857,  the  formal  inauguration  of  Wash- 
ington University  took  place,  by  appropriate  exercises,  at  Acade- 
mic Hall,  and  by  an  oration  delivered  by  Hon.  Edward  Everett  in 
the  Mercantile-Library  Hall.  The  Scientific  Department  was 
organized  at  that  time.  The  Collegiate  Department  was  organ- 
ized in  1859  ;  and  the  first  senior  class  was  graduated  in  June, 
1862. 

The  amount  of  funds  needed  for  the  establishment  and  proper 
endowment  of  a  university  is  far  greater  than  would  be  at  first 
supposed.  To  secure  the  best  talent,  competent  salaries  must  be 
paid ;  and  the  best  facilities  of  education,  in  apparatus,  library, 
buildings,  &c,  must  also  be  supplied.  At  the  same  time,  the 
rates  of  tuition  must  be  kept  down,  so  as  to  open  the  institution  to 
as  large  a  number  as  possible,  and  free  scholarships  endowed  for 
the  benefit  of  deserving  pupils  who  are  in  indigent  circumstances. 
For  these  purposes,  a  half-million  of  dollars  could  be  immediately 
and  advantageously  used,  without  extravagance  ;  and  the  attention 
of  liberal  and  wealthy  men  is  earnestly  called  to  the  subject.  The 
time  has  come  for  the  West  to  found  its  own  institutions,  to  edu- 
cate its  own  children.  St.  Louis  is  to  be  the  metropolitan  city  of 
the  West ;  and  there  is  no  good  reason  why  there  should  not  be 
established  here  a  University  of  the  highest  class,  with  advantages 
of  education  equal  to  those  offered  in  the  best  institutions  of  Ame- 
rica or  Europe.  Time  is  requisite,  undoubtedly :  but,  with 
sufficient  funds,  the  usual  work  of  many  years  may  be  accom- 
plished in  one  ;  and  those  who  begin  the  work  may  have  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  it  accomplished.     With  this  hope,  and  to 


34 


show  the  principles  on  which  specific  endowments  are  invited,  the 
fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  articles  of  the  Constitution  are  here  in- 
serted :  — 

Art.  5.  —  Endowment  of  Professorships.  —  Any  person  may  endow,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  a  specified  professorship  in  the  said  University ;  and  if,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  Board  of  Directors,  said  endowment  shall  be  sufficient  for  the  perpetual 
support  of  said  professorship,  said  professorship  shall  bear  the  name  of  its 
founder  for  ever,  unless,  at  the  time  of  the  endowment,  he  shall  otherwise 
direct. 

Art.  6.  —  Endowment  of  Departments.  —  Any  person  may  found,  by  an 
adequate  endowment,  a  specific  department  in  said  University,  provided  the 
plan  of  its  organization  and  its  purposes  are  approved  by  the  Board  of  Direct- 
ors ;  and  if  said  endowment  shall,  in  the  opinion  of  said  Board,  be  sufficient 
for  the  perpetual  support  of  said  department,  it  shall  bear  the  name  of  the 
founder  thereof  for  ever,  unless  he  shall  otherwise  direct  at  the  time  of  endow- 
ing the  same. 

Art.  7.  —  Specific  Funds.  —  All  funds  and  property,  of  whatsoever  nature 
or  description,  contributed  to  the  endowment  or  founding  of  a  professorship 
or  department,  shall  for  ever  be  faithfully  applied  to  the  specific  purpose  for 
which  contributed,  and  to  no  other  object  whatsoever,  without  the  written 
consent  of  the  donor  or  founder  thereof,  or  of  his  heirs  or  assigns,  and  also 
the  written  consent  of  two-thirds  of  the  Directors  first  had  and  obtained ; 
provided,  however,  that  said  funds  and  property  in  this  article  named  shall 
never  be  diverted  from  the  purposes  of  said  University. 


B. 

In  further  illustration  of  these  views,  an  extract  from  the 
"  Appeal  of  the  Polytechnic  Institute  to  the  Public "  is  here  ap- 
pended :  — 

"  It  seems  to  us  that  the  time  has  come  when  a  broader  and  more  liberal 
view  of  the  educational  wants  of  our  age  and  country  should  be  taken ;  when 
mechanics,  manufacturers,  merchants,  miners,  farmers,  boatmen,  in  a  word, 
when  all  who  are  in  anywise  associated  with  material  and  industrial  pursuits, 
should  insist  upon  having  for  themselves  all  the  facilities  necessary  to  a  tho- 
rough training  at  least  in  those  natural  sciences  and  kindred  studies,  on  the 
full  knowledge  and  right  application  of  which  the  success  of  their  daily  enter- 
prise so  largely  depends.  Every  person  in  the  workshops  of  our  city  is 
constantly  using,  in  his  department  of  labor,  some  mathematical,  philosophi- 
cal, or  scientific  principle,  the  mastery  of  which  would  save  him  from  much 
useless  experimenting,  and  from  the  loss  both  of  time  and  valuable  materials. 


35 


if  we  could  estimate,  with  mathematical  precision,  the  value  of  the  raw  mate- 
ria] and  labor  08eleB8ly  expended  each  day,  the  loss  of  which  would  have  been 
avoided  had  the  workman  possessed  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  scientific  and 
philosophical  principles  involved,  it  would  be  found  that  at  least  one-third  of 
the  whole  is  actually  wasted.  Yet  many  workmen  possess  a  large  fund 
of  knowledge,  acquired  by  toilsome  and  expensive  experiments  in  the  work- 
shops, particularly  with  reference  to  the  special  processes  of  their  respective 
arts,  which  remain  unknown  to  the  scientific  world;  and  in  the  daily  labor  of 
their  employees,  or  of  those  under  their  management,  they  arc  among  the 
best,  and,  in  most  cases,  the  only  teachers  large  numbers  of  their  fellow- 
workmen  ever  have.  In  the  libraries  and  laboratories  and  universities  of  the 
country,  on  the  other  hand,  are  garnered  up  untold  treasures  of  facts  and 
principles,  which,  if  drawn  out  of  their  comparatively  hidden  recesses,  and 
diffused  through  the  workshops  and  along  the  busy  avenues  of  trade,  made 
to  come  into  constant  and  immediate  contact  with  operative  industry,  would 
give  an  unimagined  impulse  to  all  the  useful  arts,  and  rapidly  advance  the 
nation  in  its  material,  intellectual,  and  moral  power  and  prosperity.  It  is  no 
new  complaint,  that  science,  in  the  hands  of  its  devotees,  rests  too  much  in 
the  region  of  abstract  truth  and  speculation,  instead  of  being  closely  wedded 
to  productive  industry ;  that  whilst  the  latter  is  daily  testing  the  accuracy  of 
the  former,  and  applying  its'truths  to  practical  ends,  it  has  not  hitherto  been 
deemed  sufficiently  important  that  those  to  whom  the  application  is  intrusted 
should  be  perfectly  trained  therefor  by  a  fitting  study  of  the  natural  laws  and 
physical  agencies  and  mechanical  principles  with  which  they  are  constantly 
dealing.  And  it  is  equally  to  be  regretted  that  the  devotee  of  science,  in 
exploring  the  secrets  of  the  universe,  does  not  deem  it  necessary  to  descend 
from  the  abstract  investigations  to  superintend  or  even  observe  the  daily 
workings  of  his  scientific  discoveries  in  the  various  departments  of  physical 
labor.  To  no  inconsiderable  extent,  this  has  been  owing  to  the  false  and 
imperfect  views  of  a  liberal  education  which  have  obtained  in  the  learned 
world,  and  especially  in  the  higher  educational  institutions,  —  our  colleges  and 
universities.  Most  of  the  latter  were  founded  on  the  partially  obsolete  models 
of  Cambridge  and  Oxford  in  England,  and  the  merely  classical  and  scholastic 
colleges  on  the  European  continent.  Whilst  polytechnic  and  mining  and 
agricultural  schools  have  sprung  up  in  England,  France,  and  Germany,  to 
meet  the  wants  of  our  utilitarian  age,  but  little  has  been  done  in  this  country 
to  meet  the  still  larger  and  more  pressing  want  here.  Our  free-school  system 
has  given  us  many  advantages,  the  fruits  of  which  are  to  be  seen,  not  only  in 
the  Patent  Office,  but  wherever  labor-saving  machinery  is  employed.  Still 
only  a  small  step  has  been  taken  in  the  right  direction.  Education  does  not 
stop  with  the  schoolroom.  Essential  as  are  school  discipline  and  training,  it 
is  obvious  that  by  far  the  largest  portion  of  useful  knowledge  distributed 
through  society  was  acquired  after  the  school-days  had  terminated.  Hence 
the  need  that  school  education  should  receive  a  practical  direction,  and  be 
largely  extended,  and  that  the  fruits  of  his  mature  experience  should  not 
he  confined  to  the  individual  possessor.  Highly  educated  labor  is  needed 
alike  on  the  farms  of  our  country,  in  its  mines,  along  its  avenues  of  trade,  in 


36 


its  workshops,  at  the  counter,  and  in  the  public  marts.  In  modern  society, 
the  mechanics,  manufacturers,  farmers,  merchants,  miners,  —  those  who  move 
the  wheels  of  national  industry,  and  give  to  individual  and  associated  enter- 
prise its  warmth  and  healthy  activity,  —  ought  to  be  the  educated  classes ; 
learned  not  so  much,  it  may  be,  in  mere  scholastic  or  literary  studies,  as  in 
all  that  pertains  scientifically  and  practically  to  their  respective  departments 
of  industry.  It  is  true,  this  requires  an  extended  range  of  thought  and  study, 
for  all  of  the  sciences  are  near  of  kin  to  each  other ;  but  who  should  be  so 
familiar  with  the  laws  of  matter  as  he  whose  daily  task  it  is  to  handle  and  adapt 
it,  in  all  its  varied  and  changing  forms,  to  answer  the  never-ceasing  wants  of 
the  age  1  We  do  not  decry  or  underrate  classical  or  literary  acquirements,  or 
any  branch  of  learning ;  nor  do  we  deny  to  the  so-called  learned  professions 
their  just  claims  :  we  merely  assert  for  the  workshops  and  industrial  pursuits 
their  right  to  a  corresponding  degree  of  intellectual  culture,  appropriately 
directed  to  their  departments  or  calling  in  life. 

"  A  moment's  reflection  upon  the  present  and  prospective  condition  of  St. 
Louis  Avill  justify  our  views.  Situated  in  the  midst  of  the  great  Mississippi 
Valley,  the  richest  agricultural  and  mineral  region  on  the  globe  ;  with  naviga- 
ble rivers  extending  in  every  direction,  and  bearing  even  now  a  commerce 
far  larger  than  the  whole  foreign  trade  of  the  Union ;  with  railroads  com- 
menced, tending  to  and  stretching  from  her,  wherever  her  multiplying 
necessities  demand ;  with  the  richest  deposits  of  coal,  iron,  lead,  and  copper 
almost  at  her  very  doors,  —  who  can  state  in  too  extravagant  terms  her  future 
destiny  in  commerce  and  manufactures,  if  her  citizens  are  true  to  themselves  ? 
If,  then,  her  material  advantages  are  so  vast,  and  promise  so  brilliant  a  future  ; 
if  she  is  to  become,  as  is  hoped,  the  principal  workshop  of  this  great  Valley,  — 
is  it  not  obvious  that  we  have  no  time  to  lose  in  fitting  for  their  task  those 
upon  whose  knowledge,  energy,  and  skill  her  greatness  and  prosperity  are  to 
depend  1 

"  It  is  but  recently  that  our  practical  miners  learned,  that,  through  a  lack 
of  a  little  scientific  knowledge,  they  had  been  laboring  for  years  to  destroy, 
as  useless,  a  large  portion  of  the  most  valuable  products  of  their  mining 
operations.  So,  in  our  workshops,  men  often  toil  for  months,  and  it  may  be 
years,  in  random  experiments  to  detect  some  better  or  less  expensive  mode 
of  manufacturing  a  desired  fabric,  when  the  knowledge  of  a  few  simple  truths 
in  mechanics  or  chemistry  would  have  taught  them  that  all  of  their  misdi- 
rected efforts  must  end  in  disappointment,  whilst  an  easy  or  cheap  remedy  or 
agent  was  waiting  at  their  hands  ready  for  use.  If  the  coming  generations  of 
St.  Louis  mechanics  and  manufacturers,  and  business-men  in  all  pursuits,  are 
thoroughly  educated  for  their  respective  callings,  our  city  will  add  to  its 
material  such  superior  educational  advantages  as  will  enable  her  far  to  out- 
strip her  many  rivals.  If  all  workmen,  from  the  proprietor  and  foreman  to  the 
youngest  apprentice,  combined  with  his  manual  skill  and  dexterity  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  mechanical  laws,  and  of  the  properties,  both  mechanical 
and  chemical,  of  the  various  substances  on  which  he  works ;  knew  how 
to  avail  himself,  to  the  greatest  advantage,  of  every  principle,  property,  and 
agency  in  Nature  ;  in  short,  if  science  and  art  should  unite  and  work  together, 


37 


and  through  the  same  person,  —  who  could  place  a  limit  to  the  progress  of 
either,  to  their  expansion  and  growth,  under  such  never-ceasing  action  and 
re-action  on  each  other  1  And  what  as  yet  animagined  and  wonderful  disco- 
veries in  science,  and  productions  of  inventive  genius,  mighl  not  flow  there- 
from !  The  boundary-line  between  the  discovered  and  undiscovered  is  at  OUT 
feet  always  ;  and  one  Stride,  properly  taken,  may  pass  ns  safely  over.  And 
who  would  he  BO  likely  to  take  that  stride  as  he  whose  mind  is  thoroughly 
trained  in  all  departments  of  scientific  inquiry,  and  whose  manual  skill  has 
been  acquired  by  a  life-long  employment  among  those  very  substances  and 
agencies  out  of  which  the  unknown  and  hidden  truth  is  to  be  dragged  to 
light  ! 

"  The  amount  of  knowledge  already  in  our  workshops  was  obtained  gene- 
rally after  long,  tedious,  and  expensive  experimenting,  and  is  too  often 
imparted  to  workmen  by  a  like  slow  process.  Hence  the  importance  of  a 
frequent  interchange  of  information  among  the  workmen  themselves,  as  well 
as  between  the  workmen  and  the  learned  in  science.  Ample  facilities  for  such 
an  interchange  of  thought  ought  to  exist  in  every  city  ;  and  it  is  one  of  the 
principal  objects  of  the  Institute  to  furnish  them  to  St.  Louis.  It  is  thus 
each  can  become  both  a  teacher  and  a  pupil,  alternately  imparting  and  receiv- 
ing the  most  useful  hints  and  practical  information.  Their  ability  thus  to 
teach,  and  their  need  to  be  thus  instructed,  none  know  better  than  themselves. 
The  process  is  going  on  daily  in  every  establishment  where  several  men  are 
employed.  The  sum  of  sound  knowledge  distributed  through  the  workshops 
has  never  been  properly  appreciated,  and  never  will  be  until  the  workmen 
meet,  and  interchange  views  with  each  other.  Each  has  much  to  teach,  and 
much  to  learn ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  every  other  useful  citizen.  By 
freely  associating  with  each  other  in  a  common  library,  and  reading  and  con- 
versation room,  and  occasionally  listening  to  an  able  lecture  on  some  one  of 
the  sciences  or  useful  arts ;  by  having  at  their  command  the  best  treatises  on 
the  subject  they  wish  to  consider,  and  ample  means  of  testing  the  accuracy 
and  utility  of  their  observations;  by  comparing  the  results  of  their  experience 
and  experiments ;  by  an  examination  of  the  best  models,  and  the  use  of  pro- 
per philosophical  apparatus  in  pushing  their  investigation,  —  they  will  not  only 
stimulate  research  among  themselves,  but  give  to  each  the  benefit  of  the 
combined  researches  of  all ;  and  hereafter  it  may  be  thought  proper  to  secure 
for  the  Institute,  in  furtherance  of  its  general  design,  the  services  of  some  one 
thoroughly  qualified  therefor,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  answer  the  inquiries 
that  may  come  from  the  workshops  of  the  city,  to  explain  the  principles 
involved,  test  the  quality  of  materials  used,  analyze  them  when  required,  and 
subject  to  scientific  examination  and  experiment  every  new  and  doubtful  pro- 
cess in  art. 

"  The  field  of  action  proposed  by  the  Institute  has  been  but  slightly 
explored.  It  is  the  field  of  American  industry,  left  hitherto,  for  the  most  part, 
without  the  aid  which  science  should  furnish,  or  that  associated  effort  could 
give.  The  so-called  learned  professions  have  not  only  whole  libraries  written 
upon  their  respective  pursuits,  or  departments  of  thought  and  research,  but 
frequent  gatherings,  at  which  each  contributes  to  the  common  stock  the  fruits 


38 


of  his  severe  "studies,  observations,  and  experience.  Thus  they  have  con- 
tinued to  advance  with  rapid  strides,  placing  under  contribution  all  the  intel- 
lectual powers  of  each  member  of  the  profession;  laying  hold  of,  and 
appropriating  to  their  own  use,  all  the  treasures  of  science,  philosophy,  letters, 
and  art.  A  similar  mode  of  progress  should  be  adopted  by  those  engaged  in 
industrial  pursuits.  In  addition  to  the  many  books  written  already  upon  the 
useful  arts,  there  are  numberless  unwritten  volumes  scattered  through  the  work- 
shops, as  yet  unknown  to  bookwrights,  and  unrevealed  to  the  poular  lecturer. 
Those  scattered  treasures  of  knowledge  can  be  discovered,  accumulated,  and 
made  to  yield  a  large  product  daily,  to  answer  often,  in  the  various  workshops 
and  manufactories  of  the  city,  all  the  purposes  of  the  best  labor-saving  inven- 
tions of  the  age. 

"But  enough  has  been  said  to  unfold  the  main  and  leading  design  of  the 
Institute.  It  addresses  itself  to  every  citizen  in  the  community,  but  with 
especial  force  to  those  who  are  actively  engaged,  either  as  capitalists  or  work- 
men, as  employers  or  employed,  in  the  industrial  arts  of  St.  Louis.  Every 
such  person  should  become  a  member,  and  contribute  by  his  energy,  zeal, 
information,  and  experience,  to  push  forward  the  enterprise  with  vigor,  to 
enable  it  as  soon  as  possible  to  attain  the  proportions  and  accomplish  the  pur- 
poses contemplated  by  its  organization.  Its  success  thus  far  has  been  great, 
although  public  attention  has  scarcely  been  directed  to  it.  With  proper 
co-operation  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  seldom  found  to  hesitate  when  a 
good  work  is  to  be  done,  the  Institute  cannot  fail,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years, 
to  become  all  that  its  patrons  fondly  expect  of  it." 


